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Harvey Dillon Director, National Acoustic Laboratories Parliamentary Breakfast

Hearing aids – how much do they really help?. Harvey Dillon Director, National Acoustic Laboratories Parliamentary Breakfast Hearing Awareness Week, 2012. Economic impact. 4.8m – 17%. 3.8m – 15%.

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Harvey Dillon Director, National Acoustic Laboratories Parliamentary Breakfast

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  1. Hearing aids – how much do they really help? Harvey Dillon Director, National Acoustic Laboratories Parliamentary Breakfast Hearing Awareness Week, 2012

  2. Economic impact 4.8m – 17% 3.8m – 15% Untreated hearing loss leads to $11.75 bn p.a. in lost economic activity – Access Economics – Listen Hear! (2006) $6.7 bn from productivity loss (lower work-force participation and effectiveness) 3.1m – 14% Australians with hearing loss per year of age ≥101

  3. Use of hearing aids by new clients in Hearing Services Program Dillon, Hickson & Lloyd (2012)

  4. Impact of need

  5. Aid ownership by hearing lossBlue Mountains Population >55 years Hartley et al (2012)

  6. Speech intelligibility (mild loss – 22 dB 3FAHL) • Hearing aid “helps” in quiet places • Tiny additional benefit from directivity Conditions: DI = 3 dB when REIG > 3 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -3.7 dB

  7. Speech intelligibility (moderate-severe loss – 54 dB 3FA HL) Conditions: DI = 3 dB when REIG > 3 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -7.7 dB

  8. Effects of hearing loss Depression, decreased independence, quality of life, ……. Leisure noise Social withdrawal Workplace noise Difficulty hearing in noise & reverb Hearing damage Environmental factors Genetic pre-dispositions Cessation of work; Under-achievement at work $6.7 bn loss Age

  9. Technology of the next few years Super-directional hearing aids

  10. Binaural-Processing Super-directional Microphone (Mejia & Dillon, 2007) Rear- directional array W1 W2 Q1 Q2 Binaural beamformer Q3 Q4 W3 W4 ∑ ∑ Masking threshold ∑ Main directional signal d = 3 ms delay (Precedence effect) K K Subsidiary signal Z-d ∑ HRTFL HRTFR ∑ Cross-fading process DOA- reconstruction Lout Rout Outputs with spatial reconstruction

  11. Video demo

  12. Super-directional microphones (mild loss) Conditions: DI = 6 dB when REIG ≥ 0 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -3.7 dB

  13. Hearing aids of the future ?  • Convergence: • phone interface, • computer interface, • music player, • GPS interface • hearing protector, • hearing aid/enhancer,

  14. Thanks for your interest

  15. In summary • With changes in technology, usage of hearing aids within the Government's Hearing Services Program has significantly increased over the past five years. • Hearing loss none-the-less remains more often uncorrected than corrected, particularly among people with mild and moderate hearing loss. • Imminent further improvements in technology will likely result in hearing aids enabling some people with hearing loss to hear more clearly than people with normal hearing. This will likely smash negative perceptions and stigma that still sometimes are associated with the use of hearing aids. • A demonstration of future super-directional hearing aid technology will be provided.

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